Print of the “LONDON OPHTHALMIC INFIRMARY &c. FINSBURY” engraved by Robert Acon, after drawing by Thomas Hosmer Shepherd. The infirmary was in this location from 1822 to 1899.
An oculometroscope places different lenses in front of a patient’s eyes, to determine which ones work best. This example was made by the Meriden Optical Manufacturing Company, a firm in Meriden, Ct. that was established to manufacture this type of instrument.
Ref: Harry I. Cowan and Bernard Abel, “Oculometroscope,” U.S. Patent 817,046 (April 3, 1906).
Andrew Jay Cross, Dynamic Skiametry in Theory and Practice (New York, 1911), p. 162.
This object is one of over 700 medically related objects used on the set of the television show M*A*S*H. Most of these items are authentic medical instruments, supplies, and equipment from the 1950s.
M*A*S*H was an award-winning television show based on the bestselling novel and Oscar winning motion picture film of the same title. It portrayed the lives of doctors and nurses assigned to a fictitious medical unit, the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, based in Uijeongbu, Korea during the 1950-1953 war. The program was initially broadcast from September 17, 1972 to February 28, 1983.
After the show ended in 1983, Twentieth Century Fox donated material from the two major sets, the “Swamp” and the “Operating Theater,” to the museum, along with scripts, photographs, and interviews with individuals who served in MASH units in Korea and Vietnam. See accessions 1983.0095, 1985.0335, 1988.0748, 1988.3163, and archival collection NMAH.AC.0117, for further MASH material.
An ophthalmometer measures the curvature of the anterior surface of the cornea, and is used to assess the extent and axis of astigmatism. This example belonged to Franklin Robinson (d. 2003), a clinical professor of neurosurgery at the Yale Medical School. The inscription reads “Bausch & Lomb Optical Co. / Rochester N.Y. U.S.A. / Serial No. LH2577 / Type 71-63-40 / CSA App. No. 6749.”
